Residents of a once-proud neighbourhood say their lives are being turned upside down by a wave of out-of-town landlords converting grand family homes into a patchwork of cramped bedsits.
Locals on Greenbank Road in Darlington, County Durham, say property developers are exploiting loopholes to slice up elegant 19th-century townhouses into 'overcrowded rabbit hutches'.
The residential street, once brimming with families, is now 'overrun' with so-called HMOs - homes of multiple occupation - with landlords attempting to cram up to nine tenants inside the three-storey buildings.
The few families that remain on the road fear their value of their homes plunging as the road becomes a HMO valley - and told of safety fears as transient tenants move in.
Matt Fisher, 47, who lives on Greenbank Road with his four children, said the close-knit community had deteriorated.
